Alvin

Alvin sticks out his tongue when he is nervous

Sunday, November 13, 2011

I think I pulled a hamstring putting in eye drops

Putting eye drops into Alvin's eyes could be a new event for the 2012 London Olympics. I still question the fact that the vet staff managed to give me the eye drop instructions with a straight face. I have learned that the best strategy is to stretch and run in place first in an effort to be warmed up and limber so that hopefully I won't pull a muscle during the Alvin wrestling event. We have definitely had a time of it and a human being can't feel worse about themselves then when traumatizing Alvin to the point that his teeth chatter. I don't know what the alternative is though because he has to have them and short of sedating him twice a day, we have to partake in this exercise of horrors. I was told to keep giving them to him until the bottle runs out but I don't think they were thinking that the bottle would run out tomorrow but we have wasted quite a bit with the drops going flying and landing goodness knows where. Why do they have to make the eye drops clear because wow, does that make it a whole other challenge to see if they actually made it in the eye. I don't even want to think about having to go through all of this again if he has to have a second eye surgery. Alvin's eyes are starting to look better, although when he wakes up in the morning his eyes are nearly swollen shut, which is definitely to his benefit because I take one look at him and end up spoiling him the rest of the day.

Having gone through this with him, I am realizing that he really needs to have his double knee surgery soon. When Alvin was first rescued his back knees were so bad that he walked like a duck and his back knees touched each other. He had surgery and although the surgery helped, it wasn't able to correct them enough and he has to have it again. This came as a HUGE disappointment for two reasons. The most important one is the pain that Alvin is going to have to go through again and the long recovery. Second, is the expense of it. It's going to cost about $4,000. UGH! He doesn't seem to be in pain, which has allowed the surgery to be put off but his back legs are weak, he walks funny, and if it isn't corrected then he will have really bad arthritis later in life. The concern is that someone has to be home with Alvin for at least the first two weeks. The time would be now because I am unemployed but I can't stay that way for much longer. I can't see starting a new job and then asking for two weeks off for a dog surgery. I can only imagine how impressive that would sound in an interview. I think it would be a disaster to have Alvin go some where else to recuperate. On the other hand, I so don't want to do it. It's going to be so painful for him and he is going to have to have me picking him up and carrying him a lot and he can't freak out and ruin the surgeon's work. The entire recuperation is 12 weeks long with most of it on cage rest. This little guy just can't catch a break. I think the rescue Camp Cocker is going to start fund-raising for him soon and I may start to try to help raise funds too. I guess I should start counting my blessings that right now all I have to do is participate in the aerobic activity of administering eye drops to a small but freakishly strong dog. I thought that we would only be dealing with emotional recovery but I guess it's a good thing that he has progressed enough that we can start addressing his physical needs. I just can't quite picturing him doing his little loops with two rear casts on. It's not going to be boring around here for a long time.

About Me

I am a volunteer foster parent for Camp Cocker Rescue (www.campcocker.com). I spent 13 years working with abused and neglected children in the foster care system and now enjoy applying some of my experience to working with abused and neglected animals.